Finally An Update! I'm back - technical difficulties!

First off - Happy spring! For 2016 I set off with the goal of doing more blog posts, being consistent and really letting the micro-farm expand on the social media scene. Everything was going to plan, until my 2009 MacBook Pro decided to die. I wasn't quite ready to buy a new one or switch to PC so unfortunately my blog posts fell behind as I waited for a new hard-drive for my mac (my baby!). A few hundred dollars later, still cheaper then a new mac - I must say, I was able to have it evaluated and updated. All in all, it took about a month and then some to replace, but I have it back. The computer technicians were also able to salvage my data and photographs! I did have my phone so I continued to post on Instagram. I started the Instagram in January and now I'm almost at 100 followers, not a big number by social media standards, but big news for me! Just like the blog, I like to include lots and lots of high quality pictures from my Nikon SLR.

So yes, I'm back! I think my computer has another chunk of years in her, so there will be plenty of new content coming your way! On a positive note, I've been forcing myself to take way more pictures since starting an Instagram, so that means more photos for the blog and even more creative content. I would like to post two to three times a week, but sometimes work, family and the micro-farm have me exhausted.

In my last post I talked about mini orchards and my dream of a glorious spring path of bulbs, bees, ducks and espaliered apple trees. The end of February was chilly, but we did have a few nice warm (deceiving) days, where the chickens enjoyed some fresh grass, worms and sunshine. Before my computer crashed I had a draft post of some pictures on that day and an update with my pepper seedlings. I'll post that after this big update post and go back to smaller subject updates.

Weather has been super weird in Southern Ontario, cold one day, warm and sunny the next. We've had at least three storms the last month. We got a good chunk of snow and then a pretty epic ice-storm. The days of sun and warmth prior to the storm had given birth to crocus and some new plant growth, most of which survived despite the ice. Many people had power outages and lost trees to ice damage. Older trees in some neighbourhoods were especially effected, pretty sad to see some nice trees split in half.

After the ice melted we had a few more days of sun and then last weekend we had a dumping of 10cm + of snow and some pretty cold temperatures. I'm worried some of my spring bulbs were damaged because they were already several inches out of the soil and less protected, that followed by nights of -10C has killed the tops of some early plants. I was tempted to grow some kale and things before these series of storms hit, and I'm glad I didn't. The long-range forecast shows a few chilly nights ahead, probably frost, but the days look increasingly warm. The farmer's Almanac predicts May 11th as the last frost date this spring.

I laid out all my seeds and did a quick evaluation to see if there was anything missing
for the upcoming season. I ended up ordering from Johnny's and Territorial seeds because I was short some staples.

It's always exciting when seeds arrive, bit of an overkill for Johnny's to send a medium
sized box for just 8 seed packets, but oh well!

Easter was a lovely day, I had the chickens outside free-ranging and I made Fintan pose with a basket of eggs, very stereotypical - I know. I had a few family dinners that weekend, but otherwise I'm not religious so it was nice to see family, catch up on micro-farm chores and have some extra days off work.

Looking forward for the rest of April, I have more seeds to start indoors, some cool new projects to work on and lots of garden prep. The rabbit breeding plan has changed and I would really like to have peanut, my silkie, raise a small clutch of eggs. Nothing is set in stone, but I'm definitely going all out this season with my flowers and edibles. I'd like to enter some amateur landscaping contests, but more importantly build some material up for my book!

Lots of sunbathing! It's so cute how they just instinctively know how to do that.

The girls really enjoyed Easter afternoon, after being cooped up
from the ice-storm

Fintan loves to be handled and cuddle in the sun, it's been really great.
He even lets kids hold him. I think he's got a great personality for the breeding program. 

I took this photo the day before we got a big storm and
they were covered by snow, when the snow melted back, they were
all wilted and damaged by the cold.

I got some free daffodils, but I ended up having to keep them in the
garage because of the cold nights ahead, I should be able to plant them this week.